Trent Cotch, awesome player and top bloke, but he's surely a boutique, funky, left field for-the-sake-of-it pick tonight

Seriously, if he had a better year than Gazza and a host of others, then I am a Labor man

Crazy talk. You can argue Mitchell, Ablett, Danger and Thompson were all as good as he was, but to say he was definitively behind them and a host of others is going too far. He had a seriously ****ing good year and played damn well in wins and losses.

Well, they obviously didn't think that he was behind those players that howardj named, nor did The Age's writers according to their award.

It's certainly not preposterous to say that he was capable of winning the thing, I think his efforts this season were in the bracket of anyone else in the league and he would have been a deserving winner. Sometimes it depends on how the voting systems suit a person's year as well.

Would say Dangerfield's season is a bit overrated because his good games were so dominant. Had the sort of year that polls well in Brownlow/coaches award type scenarios but was too patchy to be compared to Cotchin, Ablett, Thompson etc.

Would rate those three plus Mitchell and Watson definitely the best players of the year. I think Ablett's season is the most remarkable though just because of the team he plays in. Would have been terrifying if he still had strong support.

He was winning or close to top 3-5 for many football awards around the football community. It clearly suggests that some thought he had a better year than some of the other favourites for the Brwnlow.

Either way, he ****ing came second in the Brownlow medal and polled more than Ablett so him being a Brownlow favourite was hardly a "left of field" opinion by the media or whatever the hell Howard described it as.